Learning Fallacies

Learning Common Fallacies

A fallacy is faulty logic. People commit errors in reasoning sometimes from ignorance, sometimes willfully (to deceive) and sometimes unintentionally. It is important for you to know something about fallacies so you can be on the look out for them as you critically evaluate the arguments of others, and so you will have more to say when you refute them. Learn these common fallacies by looking up definitions and taking notes on the examples provided here:

Use the search engine you find there (select "www.fallacyfiles.org" to search only within the site) and simply input the names of each of the fallacies listed below.

Unrepresentative sample

Appeal to ignorance

Either/or (False dilemma)

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc ("post hoc" fallacy)

Hasty Generalization

Begging the question

Ad hominem

Ad populum (bandwagon)

Red herring

Appeal to authority

Straw man

Slippery slope

False analogy. It's not uncommon to hear someone exclaim, "Hey, that's like comparing apples to oranges" when a comparison being made is dissimilar, in significant respects. (You may recall I referred to this one in the practical reasoning tutorial.)

One more I want you to know, that isn't covered at the Fallacy Files for some reason, is Non sequitur which means "it does not follow." This is an illogical leap.